Windows Live Writer – on WordPress?

Okay – I’ve finally given over to the Dark Side, and am running a Windows Vista machine, and Windows Live Writer as my publishing tool. I know – I swore up and down on my FC6 box (and I still love it dearly) but I guess I’ve finally decided I need to know what everyone else is into and see through the eyes of the general consumer. That is, unfortunately, the one thing you don’t get running a Linux desktop – as when you do any web development you don’t really have any guarantee that you’re running what everyone else is running, and seeing what they’re seeing. As I write a lot of documentation, it becomes hard to assume audience viewpoint when you don’t know what they’re seeing. This is covered by L. Ron Hubbard in Scientology technology on assuming viewpoint when writing – namely:

“One must learn to shift from the viewpoint of a copywriter or layout person to the beingness of the eventual viewer. In this way, one can estimate, quite accurately, the impression that will be made by the pictures and copy when they are released to that public.” – L. Ron Hubbard, essay called “Viewpoint“

So, there you have it. I have a cute new Core2 Duo E6300 machine running Vista on it. Though I thought it was going to be just a porker (which it is) it actually is not all too slow. It’s comparable to running Compiz on FC6.

But now, I’m going to make an attempt to use it as a blogging platform, and see what happens. As soon as I’ve actually tried to work it for a while, I’ll do another write-up on my comparison of the two platforms.

But for right now, I’m pretty impressed with this little Windows Live Writer app. I just went and copy/pasted the above graphic from my Vista desktop straight into the blog post, and there it is — right smack in there. I can put drop shadows, photo edges, whatever onto it, as well as a host of other effects.

After I’ve put some mileage on it, I’ll let you know what I think — but I’m definitely interested in some other viewpoints on this already – if you’re a new Vista user. If you’re not using it yet though, go ahead and give it a whirl at http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/ — though unfortunately it’s a very Windows app, and won’t be coming back with me when I finally decide to switch back to my Fedora/Compiz desktop.